With recent controversy surrounding sports men and women being seriously injured on the field by advertising boards and banners, the Expand a Sign Health and Safety Department (no, we don’t actually have such a task force) decided to put one of the latest members of the branding team to the test. The Ex-Up banner is unique in that it winds open and closed effortlessly, has no loose parts, and has replaceable fabric ‘skins’. I can’t lie, we love this advertising gem. With 3 sizes available, and the option of vertical or horizontal branding, I can understand why the Ex-Up won an award at the 2009 Red Dot Design Awards in Germany.

Meet Wade.

32 years old.   

Loves his kid.

Surfing enthusiast, enjoys burning rubber on a dirt bike, and I suspect that he has a particular penchant for damage and demolition.

With an Extra Large Ex-Up banner in tow, Wade and his posse of wannabe stuntmen made their way to the ‘testing zone.’ Located in the outskirts of Hillcrest in South Africa, Crestholme is an area with a noticably quiet, slower pace of life.

Until now.

Wade’s mission, should he choose to accept it, would be to ramp into the air and land onto an Ex-Up banner. With his Yamaha YZ 250, Wade was amped. Psyched. Rearing to go. But would the Ex-Up banner prove too strong for our Evel Knievel daredevil? Would this leap of bravery result in severe pain and suffering? 

By now, a small group of children had gathered to witness the stunt. Dubbed ‘the pit crew’, they were captivated by the events surrounding them.

As Wade turned on the ignition, opened the throttle and accelerated into 3rd gear, the crowd all gasped in unison. When he flew into the air and connected with the Ex-Up, a dubious ‘crunch’ sound was heard by all. On closer inspection of the banner’s frame, a diagnosis of ‘fractured rod’ was made. But our Motorbike Man was in one piece, and the banner was repaired in less than 5 minutes, and at a cost of less than $2 US.

Next, we hope to find someone willing to skateboard over an Ex-Up. We’ll let you know how it goes!

Cheers,

Team EAS.

On the 9^th September, Roger and Matthew (the Expand a Sign 'Twins of Mass Disruption') embarked on an experience of a lifetime with two things in mind. Firstly, to complete the gruelling Wild Run Race and secondly, to make a meaningful contribution to the local community.

The Wild Run Race is a three day, 112km trail running stage race along one of the most rugged and beautiful coastlines in South Africa; the Wildcoast. The event starts at the Great Kei River and finishes at the beautiful natural wonder - The Hole-in-the-Wall. Between the two is 112km of wilderness with golden beaches, rolling hills, spectacular cliffs, wildlife, dolphins, warm sea, blue sky and friendly people. The race was extremely difficult as they ran through tough terrain – swimming across rivers, crossing soft sand, fighting the prevailing wind, rock hopping and traversing uneven ground. Passing a decomposing whale carcass and a rusty old ship wreck were certainly unique experiences in themselves.

Waking each morning with aching bones, popped blisters and bandaged knees to run the distance of a marathon, off road, for 3 consecutive days, was understandably draining on the body and mind. If anything, this gives one a taste of the lifestyles that the local community experience on a daily basis. With very little infrastructure in the Transkei, the local people face the daily challenges of fetching water, collecting firewood and keeping themselves fed. The pair regularly came across women and children dragging fire wood behind a donkey, carrying barrels of water on their heads or collecting mussels off the rocks.

The twins were joined by Bob Skinstad (ex Springbok Rugby player) and Ron Rutland who represented the Bobs for Good Foundation which is a charity that provides free shoes to the rural school children of South Africa. The aim on this trip was to supply the children of Ngubenyathi Primary School with school shoes. We embraced this initiative by contributing school bags made from the off cut banner material. The manufacture of these bags help us reduce our carbon footprint (by recycling our banner material), allows us to support a small women-only business, and results in a quality product that less privileged school children value. 

Each scholar received a brand new pair of school shoes placed inside a lovely colourful school bag. A large group chose to help and hand out the shoes to the 200 children and after a very moving acceptance speech by both the local municipal leader and school teacher (one teacher for grades 6, 7, 8 and 9!) they set about fitting the boys and girls with their new shoes. It was a small initiative by us, but meant so much to the local community. All the elders arrived wearing their best kit to watch the events unfold. It was upsetting to witness how few teachers there were at the school as they were on the ‘national strike’. They ended the day by singing the National Anthem with the children which was really moving. It was so rewarding to make a small difference to a community who has so little. The motto on the wall outside the school said it all “forwards EVER, backwards NEVER”.

What an honour it was to  experience such a beautiful part of the world and to experience such a wonderful community.

Cheers,

Expand a Sign.

Where'd I lose my core?

Over the past few years, the mentality of 'why run when you can drive?' has unfortunately prevailed in my life. The teenage metabolism has slowed, and office work and feeble physical exertion has resulted in a body shape to be ashamed of.

So I recently decided to embark on something new. The 90s catch phrases of yoga, tai chi and kickboxing have always made my (untoned) skin crawl. But now was, excuse the pun, crunch time! I persuaded a friend to join me in my quest for bodily perfection, and signed up for private pilates classes. What's the worst that can happen from rolling around on a giant rubber ball twice a week, I naively asked myself. And so, I ambled into my introduction class to pilates. 

I was terrified, I can't lie. The 26 year old blonde, svelte Reese Witherspoon lookalike personal trainer gave me the creeps. She could probably touch her earlobe with her ankle. A not-so-short survey on my medical health resulted in, 'Okay, we'll take this slow!' from Legally Blonde Reese. Great relief; I won't be folding myself into a human pretzel today.

Surprisingly, the next 55minutes seemed to go by very quickly. No torture. No abuse. The only disaster was when I very nearly passed wind whilst channelling my inner 'abdominal power house' and was expected to bring my knees to my chest. 

When leaving the class, I shuffled outside and toward my car. As I sluggishly moved to open the front door, Walk The Line Reese must have noticed the car decals displayed and hollered, 'Oooh you do those groovy banners. I need banners!' 

I may have lost the feeling in my right leg indefinitely, but at least this pilates studio is going to have some great branding products!

Cheers,
Expand a Sign Fitness Guru

Getting all wound-up.

Whenever a season of Survivor ends I go into a deep, funky depression. Not even the alternative reality TV channels can satisfy my interest in viewing unshaven, rugged men. Nothing is able to calm the urge to starve myself and live in my back garden for a week, or soften the detox-type cravings for cunningly edited hour-long goodness. 

This time, when the fog of Survivor-absence malaise lifted, I decided to take action. One of the 5 phases during grief is apparently anger. And I was mad. Slouched in my office chair, I couldn't help but notice the Ex-Up wind-up Banner to my right; it was almost looking at me. Taunting me, even. As if it was telling me, 'I've won an International Design Award. What have you done to impress?' 

With it's smugness, the product was asking to be abused.

So when The Boss strolled in declaring that he wanted to test the Ex-Up's durability on hard impact, I nearly fell off my chair in violence-anticipatory excitement. To vent my woes onto an inanimate object would do me the world of good! 

I was to set up the Ex-Up A-Frame on the outside loading zone ramp, while someone else would heave a (already broken) large laser jet printer onto it, from the 4th floor ceiling. With the banner in place, the printer was hurled down to the ground. Once, it missed it's target and had to be put back together and sent back up for another attempt at distruction. And again, the printer failed to make contact with the Ex-Up. 

By now, my enthusiasm for damage and demolition was beginning to subside. Maybe it was because the impressive 1.4m x 2.4 product was beside me, awaiting it's brutal attack-by-printer. With it's durable frame and long-lasting fabric, I couldn't be sure how it would cope. But when the third printer grenade shaved the side of the banner and burst a plume of pink printer ink, we chose to abort mission.

I quickly wound the banner up and clung to it as I vacated the scene of the experiment. Yet The Boss was not satisfied and instructed two of us to take the product to the Moto X track over the weekend and cause a mess. Ramping over it, driving into it and mad wheelies onto it will test the tolerance of the mighty Ex-Up.

Come back next week to find out the verdict and how the Expand a Sign tribe has spoken!

Cheers,

EAS Team.